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Matt James, co-owner of Onthefield.com near Qwest Field, says he’s seeing more demand for Sounders gear, such as bright green scarves, than for Mariners caps and other merchandise.

Greg Lamm

Staff Writer

The Seattle Sounders FC may be the upstarts on the local sports scene, but the new pro soccer team appears to be having little trouble attracting sponsors and ticket buyers.

That’s despite a recession and competition with the Seattle Mariners, who also are selling tickets and sponsorships leading up to their season start in April.

Seattle’s Major League Soccer expansion team has already landed more than 30 sponsors with only a few weeks to go before the season opener in March. That includes deals with Virginia Mason, QFC and a blockbuster deal with Microsoft worth a reported $20 million that will have the Sounders’ green jerseys emblazoned with the Xbox 360 logo.

The Sounders have sold about 20,000 season tickets, which eclipses the number sold by the 32-year-old Mariners team, which estimates it will sell about 14,000 by the start of the season.

Of course, the Mariners play more than four times as many games as the Sounders, and an M’s season ticket therefore costs much more. Plus, the recently announced return of future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. could give Mariners marketing a big bump.

Indeed, the Mariners and Sounders organizations deflect any talk that the teams, gearing up to play in neighboring Safeco Field and Qwest Field, are in competition for fans and corporate dollars this winter. But it’s clear that the Sounders have tapped into a segment of the market eager to be affiliated with something fresh after a disappointing 2008 local sports scene that included losing the NBA SuperSonics to Oklahoma City and watching other major teams flounder on the playing field.

“I feel pretty good where we are,” said Gary Wright, who heads up the Sounders’ business operations. “A year and half ago, I am not so sure I would have said that. But I knew there was great support for a team here.”

Wright said that the Sounders have some built-in advantages in selling tickets and landing corporate sponsors — namely their affiliation with the Seattle Seahawks. Seahawks owner Paul Allen also is a principal owner of the Sounders and the teams share staff, which allows the soccer team to tap into the NFL team’s front office expertise and connections. About half of the Sounders sponsors, including QFC and Virginia Mason, also have partnerships with the Seahawks.

“There may be some rationale in sponsoring the Sounders and getting in on the buzz of an MLS team entering in the market,” said sports sponsorship expert Liz Panich, a consulting director for The Marketing Arm brand-building agency in Chicago.

On a national level, Panich said pro teams are having a harder time renewing sponsorships and landing new ones because of the recession. Companies also are looking for better deals, and are negotiating harder with pro teams.

Major League Baseball remains a good sponsorship buy, she said, because the sport has seen an upswing in popularity in recent years.

But a Major League Soccer team like the Sounders might be a better buy for some companies that hope to reach more Hispanics and other groups that might be prone to follow soccer, Panich said.

The Sounders’ Wright said the team sees its core season-ticket audience as young, hip, tech-savvy adults.

The Sounders certainly are aware of the recession, Wright said. But so far the team has not altered its approach to selling tickets or sponsorships. Wright attributes that to the price points the team set early on. A season ticket for 18 home matches ranges from $288 to $1,350. By comparison, a Mariners season ticket ranges from $1,053 to $3,645 for 81 home games.

Single-game tickets will go on sale March 3. By then, the Sounders — who will seat fans only in the lower bowl of Qwest Field — expect to have only a few thousand of their 24,500 seats available for league matches. Given that, Wright said the Sounders expect to play before sold-out crowds the entire season.

“This shows how thirsty for a new pro team this town is and how buzzed about soccer this town is,” said Sam Hassan, executive director of All Nations Club, an annual local soccer tournament that draws thousands of fans who come to watch teams composed of immigrants from Romania, Mexico, Japan, Brazil and other countries.

Ron Jenkins, vice president of corporate sponsorships for both the Sounders and Seahawks, expects the team to wind up with about 50 sponsors this season.

As for competition between the Sounders and Mariners, both Jenkins and Wright said they don’t think of it that way.

“Our people seriously root for the Mariners, and I believe they root for us,” said Wright. He said that the Sounders coach has been invited to throw out a pitch at an M’s game this season, and the Sounders plan later this season to announce a similar game-day tradition involving the Mariners.

There are significant differences between the two teams, including the price of tickets.

“It’s apples to oranges,” Wright said. “They have had some tough seasons. Some tough ticket sales, but the advent of Ken Griffey gives them a renewed vibe in the community.”

Mariners spokeswoman Rebecca Hale also dismissed any notion that the two teams are competing. But unlike the Sounders, the Mariners — mindful of the recession — have made some adjustments.

The M’s have frozen prices for single and season tickets, and tickets bought between March 14 and April 10 are discounted $1 to $2. The team this year also has a four-for-two season-ticket special, with fans able to get four seats for the price of two in some Field Level and Terrace Club outfield seats.

Hale said that ticket sales leading up to this season had been sluggish, especially with the team coming off of a 101-loss season. But the team saw fan interest swell earlier this month with the news that Griffey was returning to play in Seattle. The day after Griffey was signed, the Mariners sold about 16,000 tickets, including 16-game packages, full-season, half-season, weekend and group club and suites.

The Mariners organization won’t know the exact number of season tickets sold until single-game tickets go on sale March 14. It remains to be seen what impact Griffey’s signing will have on season-ticket sales, which typically average 14,000 to 15,000 a year, Hale said. The exception was after the 2001 season when the Mariners won a record 116 games. The following year, the team sold 23,600 season tickets.

Griffey’s contract includes clauses that reward him if the M’s draw more fans to the ballpark.

If more fans come, that would be good news for Matt James, who along with his father, Lane, owns Onthefield.com. The sports clothing store next to Qwest field that sells Mariners, Seahawks and Sounders T-shirts and other merchandise had a sign out front saying customers could get 50 percent off on Mariners goods.

Business was down last year. And James said the store has sold hardly any Mariners merchandise this year, aside from an uptick in demand for Griffey T-shirts the day after he signed with the team.

The Griffey buzz and the steady demand for Sounders goods have James optimistic.

“This is great,” James said. “Griffey’s signing. Everything else. We are ready for it.”

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